Until it was time to eat.
Turning on the hot and cold faucets in her claw-footed tub, she held her hand under the water stream to test the temperature. Still kind of hot. Ever since she was little and had burned her skin with too-hot water, she’d tried to be careful. The babysitter had gotten an earful over that, since Lanna hadn’t been old enough to judge the temperature for herself. Now where were those bath salts? She dug through the two boxes in the corner. She remembered bringing them when she packed to move, but couldn’t seem to locate them.
Not there. Maybe in her vanity? Opening drawers didn’t produce them either.
She stood up to open the medicine cabinet. A glance in the mirror told her she shouldn’t have been in such a hurry that morning. Oh for goodness sake.
Why didn’t anyone tell her she had a glob of mascara the size of Canada under her left eye? That never would have happened in her old job in the Indianapolis post office. The snooty, picky women she worked with there would have pointed it out before she made it in from the parking lot.
Lanna frowned… She missed Indiana, but not everything.
And especially not Drake.
Giving up on the bath salts, Lanna stepped over the high rim of the tub. This certainly was something her apartment in Indianapolis hadn’t had. The tub there wasn’t big enough to spritz a gnome.
Lowering herself down into the water, she winced. Yikes! Still a little hot. But she was half-wet now. Inch by inch, she submerged herself until the water was up to her collarbone. Inhaling, she closed her eyes, leaning her head against the back of the tub.
Drake. Why couldn’t she just forget him? Her heart crumbled a little more every time she thought about him. What happened after that? Could a person’s heart self-heal? She didn’t want to waste her thoughts on him, but couldn’t seem to stop.
Scooting down a little more in the water, tiny waves rippled under her chin. She’d wasted two whole years on that man. Enough. More than enough. Time to move on.
Of course, if she’d figured out sooner what he was like, she would have dumped him. It didn’t matter now. He had what he wanted, a younger, richer, and skinnier version of her, red hair and all. Why had it taken Lanna so long to figure out he was two-timing her?
She frowned. It seemed a semi-professional racecar driver got away with a lot. At least her former boyfriend had. But once he’d dumped her publicly, she hightailed it out of Indiana. Texas seemed far enough away to escape her troubles. At least she hoped so.
Tears burned behind her eyelids. She would not cry. Would. Not.
People always told her she was too trusting. She hadn’t believed them. But she did now and would never make that mistake again, especially not with a man. She rippled her fingers through the warm water in the tub, making tiny waves against the porcelain side.
A creak and swoosh pulled her thoughts back to the present. She gasped, feeling steam from the tub fill her throat. What was that? Had she locked her door when she came into the apartment? Could someone have followed her up the stairs?
Her heartbeat sped up. She scooted farther down in the water, barely noticing some water splashing up her nose until she felt a sneeze coming on. This would not be the best time to alert a prowler to her whereabouts. Clamping down on her nostrils with a thumb and forefinger, she willed her nose to cooperate. Come on sneeze, take a hike.
She darted her gaze around the tub, looking for some kind of weapon to ward off the intruder. Soap? A washcloth? Get real. Not effective unless the intruder was a large, smelly germ.
A tiny noise, like something bumping the outside of the bathroom door, filtered in. Lanna let go of her nose. If there were someone out there, they’d find her anyway, sneeze or not. She had locked her apartment door, hadn’t she? She’d been trying to hold onto Gordon when she came in. Maybe she’d forgotten. And none of the doors inside the apartment latched. If there was something in this building that was plumb, she’d like someone to point it out to her.
Being new in town, she didn’t know if there might be some crazies who habitually hung around outside the post office. Could someone have followed her from inside the post office when she came upstairs? The outside door was left unlocked so people could have access to their lock boxes after hours. Her heart thudded in her ears like a tom-tom.
Gaze glued to the bathroom door, she was down so far that she could only make out top edge of the door. Another thump sent her even lower in the water. Any lower and she’d drown.
Death by bathtub water.
Woman dies in claw-footed tub.
Former Hoosier travels all the way to Texas to die a drippy death.